The Berenstein Bears and the Golden Rule
Written by Heather Leister
|
Screenshots
|
Hooray! The Berenstein Bears have come to the App Store! Oceanhouse Media, the developers behind the popular Dr. Seuss e-book adaptations, have begun bringing the classic bears to storybook apps. The format is similar to what they’ve done with Dr. Suess. The illustrations are taken directly from the books but they are adjusted and scaled for the screen. They pan in and out so everything fits and flows with the narration. The story’s text is shown on the screen and will highlight as the story is read aloud. If you tap on different objects on the screen the name of that object will appear in large, highlighted letters and you’ll hear it spoken. Background music and sound effects accompany the story but they’re not overpowering and add to the experience of the story. You may always turn them off in the settings if you find them distracting at all. You have the choice of listening to the story read aloud or turning on auto-play. In both of these options a narrator will automatically read the words on the screen. The difference is in read aloud mode you must turn the pages. With auto-play the app will do that for you. The last option is to read the story to yourself. This turns off the narration unless you tap on the paragraph. If you do tap on a spot in the paragraph the narrator will read that for you.
I sampled The Berenstein Bears and the Golden Rule but there are two other titles also available in the App Store. They are The Berenstein Bears Go to Sunday School and The Berenstein Bears Say Their Prayers. Each app is available for $2.99 and has been developed to work on an iPhone or iPad. I’ve always been a fan of the Berenstein Bears and they way they teach about values, friendship and family in an entertaining way. It’s wonderful to see them being adapted to new technology and I’m happy to report it’s a faithful adaptation that’s been executed very well.
Price when Reviewed: $2.99
Seller: Oceanhouse Media
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.
By Eugene Mok on Oct 15, 2010
I love Oceanhouse Media. I bought all their books the last time they had a sale. The best thing is that their books are Universal so they look great on both the iPad and the iPhone.